Awesome review collection. I was about to post a thread about the Xbox 360 and whether I should bother to upgrade from my Halo Edition. I may have to if I want to use optical out at the same time as HDMI if I was to consider a Dolby adaptor. Better audio imaging is on my list of things I want.

I've bought the ad700, but I don't know which sound card to pair it with. I play mostly fps games so I want to be able to soundwhore(hear footsteps) with great positional accuracy. (I have Windows 8, if it matters :P)

I've bought the ad700, but I don't know which sound card to pair it with. I play mostly fps games so I want to be able to soundwhore(hear footsteps) with great positional accuracy. (I have Windows 8, if it matters :P)

My short recommendation is the X-Fi Titanum HD as there is no better sound card for gaming with headphones, but you should be checking out Nameless' fantastic guide to pc gaming audio. That thread focuses way more on the topic of your question. Your question is also extremely common, so make sure you've read that thread because it answers this quite specifically.

Awesome review collection. I was about to post a thread about the Xbox 360 and whether I should bother to upgrade from my Halo Edition. I may have to if I want to use optical out at the same time as HDMI if I was to consider a Dolby adaptor. Better audio imaging is on my list of things I want.

Currawong really IS watching! Lol.

Curra, really a Dolby Headphone adapter is easily the most important thing in the chain for me.

If I had to make a choice between playing a game with the HD800 with the best stereo amp/dac in the world, or a simple KSC75 with a Dolby Headphone device, I'd choose the KCS75 everytime. That's how important virtual surround is to me. No joke. Once you get used to the fact that it's not about pure fidelity but immersion and virtual surround positioning, and adjust to the SQ change, you'll find that playing in stereo is like putting on blinders. Of course HD800 with Dolby Headphone would probably destroy the world with it's overwhelming awesomeness.

I dunno about you, but I'd look into older receivers that have Dolby Headphone. Like triple digit Harmin Kardon or Marantz receivers. They have very little to mo audible noise floors. If you want compact, a 2nd gen Mixamp is pretty quiet. Otherwise, the other devices are fine but do have audible hiss.Edited by Mad Lust Envy - 4/14/13 at 12:44pm

Btw guys, expect two new reviews soon-ish, one being a headset, the other one a considerably more expensive uhh...combo. Also expecting an up to date Mad Dog, which may or may not cause me to edit/update the review.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BizareLogics

I recently took my Astro a50's back to the shops.

I've got a 2013 Mixamp Pro coming (Astro) and i'm looking for a good headset to combine with it.

I've been running Turtle Beach X41's for 3 years now. Not happy with Astro's. . I'm hoping the Mixamp Pro 2013 will be alright to use, or do you recommend something else.

My games of choice are FPS, MMO's, On PC and also Xbox 360. My soundcard is a Creative PCI Express X-Fi Titanium.

These are the headsets I have been looking at. I know the price range is up and down on most but please elaborate if the extra $ is worth it. Preferred price tag for me is 300-400.

Sennheiser PC 360 Headset

Beyer Dynamic DT 990 Premium 600 OHM Headphones

AKG K702 65th Anniversary Edition

Sennheiser HD 598 Headphones

AKG Q 701 Quincy Jones Signature Reference-Class Premium Headphones

AKG K 701 Headphones

Audio Technica ATH-AD700 Open-air Dynamic Audiophile Headphones

HiFiMAN HE-400 Planar Driver High Efficiency Headphones

For a nice blend of balance and fun, the K702 65th Anniversary is my top recommendation, above all else.Edited by Mad Lust Envy - 4/14/13 at 12:49pm

Curra, really a Dolby Headphone adapter is easily the most important thing in the chain for me.

If I had to make a choice between playing a game with the HD800 with the best stereo amp in the world, or a simple KSC75 with a Dolby Headphone device, I'd choose the KCS75 everytime. That's how important virtual surround is to me. No joke. Once you get used to the fact that it's not about pure fidelity but immersion and virtual surround positioning, and adjust to the SQ change, you'll find that playing in stereo is like putting on blinders.

I can only second that. Dolby Headphone is so important for gaming and movies! You can hear your enemies before they knife you! And you can watch a movie like Lord of the Rings or Matrix on a 17 inch HD laptop sceen with out ever noticing the monitors small size. This kind of sound enlarges the whole experience so much.... It happened to me last year in a hotel room. The web was dead, so no online FPS possible. Put the blue ray of Matrix into my Asus gaming Laptop to just try out the experience. Found myself breathless and a little cold in front of the screen two hours later.... I grant you only using Stereo sound cannot create this. BTW the headphone was the HD 650. And DH came from using the XONAR USB.

Awesome review collection. I was about to post a thread about the Xbox 360 and whether I should bother to upgrade from my Halo Edition. I may have to if I want to use optical out at the same time as HDMI if I was to consider a Dolby adaptor. Better audio imaging is on my list of things I want.

Shouldn't need to upgrade your Xbox 360 just to get optical out. If the Halo edition is like my current Xbox, you can use one of the many adapters like these to get HDMI to one source and optical to the DSP. This one is third party, but I have the official microsoft one myself.

Get the adapter from Monoprice. Many other, non-official adapters will reset the system when you change inputs. Neither the official nor the Monoprice adapters will do the resetting behavior as described above.

I've been doing a ton of research and I've finally narrowed it down to two pairs of headphones. The AKG Q701 and the Beyerdynamic DT990 Pro. Before, I thought I was going to buy the AD700, but my brother talked me in to raising my price range to about $200, so these are what I've found. The main use for the headphones will be gaming, but I will occasionally do some audio editing in Adobe Audition as well. Your opinions would help a lot. Thanks.